EE8215 High Voltage Engineering

(Program Elective)
B.E. / VII Semester / EEE

Prem Prakash

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Ranchi-835215
 Module – III

Conduction and Breakdown in

Liquid Dielectrics
More useful as insulating materials than either solids or gases.

This is because both liquids and solids are usually 103 times denser
than gases

From Paschen’s law it should follow that they possess much

higher dielectric strength of the order of 107 V/cm.

Also, liquids, like gases, fill the complete volume to be insulated

and simultaneously will dissipate heat by convection.

Oil is about 10 times more efficient than air or nitrogen in its heat
transfer capability when used in transformers.

Although liquids are expected to give very high dielectric strength

of the order of 10 MV/cm, in actual practice the strengths obtained
are only of the order of 100 kV/cm.
Liquid dielectrics are used mainly as impregnants in high-voltage
cables and capacitors, and For filling up of transformers, circuit
breakers, etc.

Liquid dielectrics also act as heat transfer agents in transformers,

and as arc-quenching media in circuit breakers.

Petroleum oils (Transformer oil) are the most commonly used

liquid dielectrics. Synthetic hydrocarbons and halogenated
hydrocarbons are also used for certain applications.

For very high-temperature applications, silicone oils and

fluorinated hydrocarbons are employed.

However, it may be mentioned that some of the isomers of poly-

chlorinated diphenyls (generally called askerels) have been found
to be very toxic and poisonous, and hence, their use has been
 PURE LIQUIDS AND COMMERCIAL LIQUIDS

Pure liquids are chemically pure and do not contain any other
impurity even in traces of 1 in 109.

Pure liquids are n-hexane, n-heptane and other paraffin

hydrocarbons.

Commercial liquid oils are not chemically pure, normally consist

of mixtures of complex organic molecules which cannot be easily
specified or reproduced in a series of experiments.
 Purification
The main impurities in liquid dielectrics are:

 dust,
 moisture,
 dissolved gases and
 ionic impurities

Various methods employed for purification are:

 filtration (through mechanical filters, spray filters, and electrostatic filters),

 centrifuging,
 degassing and distillation,
 chemical treatment (adding ion exchange materials such as alumina,
fuller’s earth, etc. and filtering).
Dust particles when present become charged and reduce the breakdown
strength of the liquid dielectrics, and they can be removed by careful
filtration.

Liquid will normally contain moisture and dissolve gases in small quantities.

Gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide significantly affect the breakdown
strength of the liquids, and hence it is necessary to control the amount of gas
present. This is done by distillation and degassing.

Ionic impurity in liquids, like water vapour which easily dissociates, leads to
very high conductivity and heating of the liquid depending on the applied
electric field.

Water is removed using drying agents or by vacuum drying.

Sometimes, liquids are shaken with concentrated sulphuric acid to remove

wax and residue and washed with caustic soda and distilled water.
A commonly used closed cycle liquid Purification system to prepare liquids as
per the above requirements

Liquid purif ication system with test cell

This system provides for cycling the liquid. The liquid from the reservoir
flows through the distillation column where ionic impurities are removed.
Water is removed by drying agents or frozen out in the low-temperature
bath. The gases dissolved in the liquid are removed by passing them
through the cooling tower and/or pumped out by the vacuum pumps. The
liquid then passes through the filter where dust particles are removed. The
liquid thus purified is then used in the test cell. The used liquid then flows
back into the reservoir. The vacuum system thus helps to remove the
moisture and other gaseous impurities.
 CONDUCTION AND BREAKDOWN IN
PURE LIQUIDS

At low electric fields (≤ 1 kV/cm), conductivities of 10-18 mho/cm are obtained.

due to the impurities remaining after purification.

When fields are high (> 100 kV/cm) the currents increase rapidly,

also undergo violent fluctuations which will die down after some time.
Conduction current-electric f ield characteristic in hexane at high fields
Conduction current-electric f ield characteristic in a hydrocarbon liquid
This curve have three distinct regions:

 At very low fields, the current is due to the dissociation of ions.

 With intermediate fields, the current reaches a saturation value, and

 at high fields the current generated because of the field-aided electron

emission from the cathode gets multiplied in the liquid medium by a
Townsend type of mechanism.

 The current multiplication also occurs from the electrons generated at the
interfaces of liquid and impurities.

 The increase in current by these processes continues till breakdown occurs.

The exact mechanism of current growth is not known; however, it appears
that:

The electrons are generated from the cathode by field emission of electrons.

The electrons so liberated get multiplied by a process similar to Townsend’s

primary and secondary ionization in gases.

As the breakdown field is approached, the current increases rapidly due to a

process similar to the primary ionization process and also the positive ions
reaching the cathode generate secondary electrons, leading to breakdown.
The breakdown voltage depends on:

 The field,
 Gap separation,
 cathode work-function, and
 the temperature of the cathode.
 In addition,
 the liquid viscosity,
 the liquid temperature,
 the density, and
 the molecular structure of the liquid also influence the breakdown
strength of the liquid.
maximum breakdown strengths of some highly purified liquids and liquefied
gases
The increase in breakdown strength is more, if the dissolved gases are
electronegative in character (like oxygen).

the increase in the liquid hydrostatic pressure increases the breakdown

strength.
 CONDUCTION AND BREAKDOWN IN
COMMERCIAL LIQUIDS

 commercial insulating liquids are not chemically pure and

 have impurities like gas bubbles, suspended particles, etc.
 These impurities reduce the breakdown strength of these liquids
considerably.
 The breakdown mechanisms are also considerably influenced by the
presence of these impurities.
 In addition, when breakdown occurs in these liquids,
 additional gases and gas bubbles are evolved and
 solid decomposition products are formed.
 The electrode surfaces become rough, and at times explosive sounds
are heard due to the generation of impulsive pressure through the
liquid.
The breakdown mechanism in commercial liquids is dependent on:

 the nature and condition of the electrodes,

 the physical properties of the liquid, and
 The impurities and gases present in the liquid.

Breakdown Mechanism in liquids:

(a) Suspended Particle Mechanism
(b) Cavitation and Bubble Mechanism
(c) Thermal Mechanism of Breakdown
(d) Stressed Oil Volume Mechanism
 Suspended Particle Theory

  In commercial liquids solid impurities present as fibres or as dispersed

solid particles.

 The permittivity of these particles () will be different from the permittivity

of the liquid ().

 If we consider these impurities to be spherical particles of radius r, and if

the applied field is E, then the particles experience a force F, where
 • This force is directed towards areas of maximum stress, if > ,
• for example, in the case of the presence of solid particles like paper in the
liquid.
• On the other hand, if only gas bubbles are present in the liquid, i.e. <
• the force will be in the direction of areas of lower stress.
• If the voltage is continuously applied (dc) or the duration of the voltage is
long (ac), then this force drives the particles towards the areas of
maximum stress.
• If the number of particles present are large, they become aligned due to
these forces, and thus form a stable chain bridging the electrode gap
causing a breakdown between the electrodes.
• If there is only a single conducting particle between the electrodes, it will
give rise to local field enhancement depending on its shape.
• If this field exceeds the breakdown strength of the liquid, local breakdown
will occur near the particle, and this will result in the formation of gas
bubbles which may lead to the breakdown of the liquid.
• The values of the breakdown strength of liquids containing solid
impurities was found to be much less than the values for pure liquids.
• The impurity particles reduce the breakdown strength, and it was also
observed that the larger the size of the particles, the lower were the
breakdown strengths.
 Cavitation and the Bubble Theory

It was experimentally observed that:

In many liquids, the breakdown strength depends strongly on the applied

hydrostatic pressure, suggesting that a change of phase of the medium is
involved in the breakdown process, which in other words, means that a kind
of vapour bubble formed is responsible for breakdown.

The following processes have been suggested to be responsible for the

formation of the vapour bubbles:
(a) gas pockets at the surfaces of the electrodes;
(b) electrostatic repulsive forces between space charges which may be
sufficient to overcome the surface tension;
(c) gaseous products due to the dissociation of liquid molecules by electron
collisions; and
(d) vapourization of the liquid by corona type discharge from sharp points
and irregularities on the electrode surfaces.
 Once a bubble is formed, it will elongate in the direction of the electric field
under the influence of electrostatic forces.

The volume of the bubble remains constant during elongation.

Breakdown occurs when the voltage drop along the length of the bubble
becomes equal to the minimum value on the Paschen’s curve for the gas in
the bubble.

The breakdown field is given as

where is the surface tension of the liquid, is the permittivity of the liquid, is
the permittivity of the gas bubble, r is the initial radius of the bubble assumed
as a sphere and Vb is the voltage drop in the bubble (corresponding to
minimum on the Paschen’s curve).
From this equation, it can be seen that

the breakdown strength depends on the initial size of the bubble which in
turn is influenced by the hydrostatic pressure and temperature of the liquid.

This theory does not take into account the production of the initial bubble
and hence, the results given by this theory do not agree well with the
experimental results.
Thermal Mechanism of Breakdown

This mechanism is based on the experimental observations of extremely large

currents just before breakdown.

These high-current pulses are believed to originate from the tips of the
microscopic projections on the cathode surface with densities of the order of
1A/cm3.

These high density current pulses give rise to localized heating of the oil
which may lead to the formation of vapour bubbles.

The vapour bubbles are formed when the energy exceeds 10 7J/cm2.

When a bubble is formed, breakdown follows, either because of its elongation

to a critical size or when it completely bridges the gap between the electrodes.

In either case, it will result in the formation of a spark.

According to this mechanism, the breakdown strength depends on the pressure
and the molecular structure of the liquid.

For example, in n-alkanes the breakdown strength was observed to depend on

the chain length of the molecule. This theory is only applicable at very small
lengths (= 100 µm) and does not explain the reduction in breakdown strength
with increased gap lengths.
 Stressed Oil Volume Theory

In commercial liquids where minute traces of impurities are present, the

breakdown strength is determined by the ‘largest possible impurity’ or ‘weak
link’.

On a statistical basis, it was proposed that the electrical breakdown strength of

the oil is defined by the weakest region in the oil, namely, the region which is
stressed to the maximum and by the volume of oil included in that region.

In non-uniform fields, the stressed oil volume is taken as the volume which is
contained between the maximum stress (Emax) contour and 0.9 Emax contour.
According to this theory, the breakdown strength is inversely proportional to
the stressed oil volume.

The breakdown voltage is highly influenced by the gas content in the oil, the
viscosity of the oil, and the presence of other impurities.

These being uniformly distributed, increase in the stressed oil volume

consequently results in a reduction in the breakdown voltage.

The variation of the breakdown voltage stress with the stressed oil volume is
shown in Fig.
 Effect of Moisture Content on
Breakdown Strength of Liquid Dielectrics

Usually, in commertial liquids like transformer oil, certain amount of moisture

(water vapour) and a very little amount of water will be present.

The maximum amount of water present in the oil of a good quality will be less
than 50 ppm at an atmospheric temperature of about 30°C or less.

Water present in the oil lowers the dielectric strength.

At lower temperatures, the moisture is distributed as minute water globules,

whereas at higher temperatures (= 80°C), water begins to boil creating more
number of vapour bubbles inside the liquid.

Water globules or vapour bubbles are the reason for the reduction of the
dielectric strength.
Break down strength of oil as f unction of water content
 TESTING OF INSULATING OILS (FLUIDS):
TRANSFORMER FLUIDS
 the fluids (oils) used in electrical power equipment like Transformers etc are
subjected to deterioration and contamination,

 their properties and quality is effectively reduced.

 Hence many tests have been developed to determine the condition of transformer
and their insulating fluid in it.

 The following tests are the minimum to determine the quality and the suitability of
the oils for future and continued use:

a) Dielectric Breakdown Test:

b) Acid and Neutralization Tests:
c) Moisture Content Test
d) Colour and Visual Particulate Testing:
Dielectric Breakdown Test:
This is done using standard oil testing kit.
The test cell has a standard spark gap setting (usually 2.5 mm).
The one minute withstand voltage and spark over voltage with a voltage rise
of 3 kV/Sec is done.
The with stand should not be less than about 40 kV on the above gap and
spark over voltage 50 kV For high voltage transformers the value should not
be less than 1 kV for each primary kV and not less than 22 kV/mm.
Acid and Neutralization Tests: This is a measure for acids formed due to
oxidation. Also sludges
and sediments are formed in oil due to oxidation and contact with moisture.
The acidity is
measured as a neutralization number with standard alkalis (KOH). For new
and good
hydrocarbon oils it should be less than 0.1 and for few PCB oils less then 0.2.
However it should
not go beyond 0. 3 for oils in use.
Moisture Content Test: Moisture or water content in oils must be as
minimum as possible and
higher moisture content will reduce the dielectric strength very much.
Hence periodic testing for moisture is done. The acceptable value for
Hydrocarbon oils and PCB oils is less than 30 ppm.
• Colour and Visual Particulate Testing: This indicates the contaminants
like dust particles, sludge
etc. Colour is measured by comparing the light transmitted through it
with standard colour scale.
Max acceptable colour number is 3.